Feature Article Vol. III, No. 7

spectaclemagazine.com http://spectaclemagazine.com/?page_id=5556 Feature Article Vol. III, No. 7 A Tale of Three Cities There are, in various cities across American, many unique and individual centers of circus activity. Three cities, however, stand out for the volume and variety of circus passion that has taken root within their borders. Our correspondents from Chicago and San Francisco, Kim Campbell and Judy Finelli, respectively and I, working in the New York City area, have put together a compendium of each of these cities numerous circus outlets. To avoid playing favorites the organization here is from East to West. The New York City Circus Community It is well to remember that New York City is made up of five boroughs, and the character of the circus and the community that surrounds it differs from one borough to the next. I’ll Take Manhattan Manhattan is, of course, famous for its glittering Broadway and off-Broadway theatre, but the circus occasionally makes forays here as well as other boroughs that might seem at first glance to be more hospitable and affordable, such as Brooklyn for instance, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Current and recent circus productions that have found a home and success in Manhattan include the long running Slava’s Snow Show and the 5 Fingers production Traces, both of which had extended stays at the off-Broadway venue Union Square Theatre. The most recent tenant there was the cabaret/circus hybrid La Soiree. The New York Goofs have often used the off-Broadway theater aptly name the Flea for its productions when in town, and has run its Ultimate Clown School in the city for many years. The current hot spot for circus in the raw is at The Box owned by a night-life impresario Simon Hammerstein, where what the New York Times termed “vulgar” vaudevillian acts play out on a small stage. Located on the lower East Side what The Box has done, according to Keith Nelson, long a player in the New York circus scene, is to make it more exclusive and expensive. “very velvet ropey.” It has been around now for five years, and its success in New York has encouraged Hammerstein to expand to London, Dubai and Vegas. Although it is promoted as new and fashionable the work being presented there is pretty much the same kind of entertainment Nelson has been producing as the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus for the past twenty years, and he points out, “the pay scale [at the Box] is the same as it was twenty years ago, maybe even lower.” What has changed is the price of admission. In the Bindlestiff era of what was then underground circus it was affordable for the masses. Hammerstein is also the producer of an even more upscale entertainment called Queen of the Night. What is fascinating to me about it is that it is being presented in the renovated remains of Billy Rose’s fabulous nightclub, The Diamond Horseshoe in the basement of a Times Square hotel. Rose’s connections to the circus and John Ringling North go back to the 1940’s. Queen of the Night is another of those hybrid concoctions wherein patrons are treated to intimate physical contact with circus performers before dining on roast suckling pig or lobster. As you might expect the price tag for this extravaganza, like the experience, is anything but modest. This extravaganza is found in the area of Manhattan known as “Broadway,” without being in an actual theater, but there are circus themed productions ensconced in honest- to-goodness theatres as well. Just a few steps away at the Music Box Theatre is the current hit musical Pippin, which has been given a new lease on life thanks in large part to the circus themed production numbers staged by Gypsy Snider. A revised version of the cult musical Side Show is at this moment being readied for its debut in a Broadway house this fall. This is the story of the conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton. Cirque du Soleil has had its eye on Broadway real estate for several years now and the best it has been able to do is stage a failed production called Banana Schpeel and a marginally successful run of Zarkana at the prestigious and storied Radio City Music Hall. At this time of year the Big Apple Circus is in residence at Lincoln Center, its big top nestled next to the Metropolitan Opera House, speaking of prestige, and the New Vic Theatre which specializes in family entertainment always books a circus style show into its house on 42nd St. during the holiday season. It is also possible to engage in some circus activity first hand, thanks to the Trapeze School of New York which has its flying rig set up outdoors above Chelsea Pier along the Hudson River on Manhattan’s West Side. The Aerial Arts NYC, an acrobatics gym in midtown is open seven days a week, and thanks to an arrangement with Pace University one can earn academic credits through your work there. During the past few summers the city has sponsored a festival of contemporary circus situated in Marcus Garvey Park on Madison Ave. It is part of the Parks Department’s SummerStage program, under the direction of Monique Martin. SummerStage has staged its events in parks throughout the city. So it is possible to encounter all types of circus performances throughout the year in Manhattan. On the first Monday of every month the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus sponsors an “open-mic” night at the Dickson Place in Manhattan. The first ten artists who contact Keith Nelson get a spot to show their stuff and one place is left open for a walk on. The audience, Nelson says, is made up of 60 percent performing artists, so it is kind of a hang-out place. Prior to these two companies there was the nightclub the Electric Circus and Hovey Burgess’s Circus Arts Institute. And it was from this milieu that the Big Apple Circus sprang into existence before it got high class and moved uptown. In speaking of Manhattan it is impossible to ignore the 800 pound gorilla. In the not too distant past New York newspapers annually welcomed the latest edition of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey as the first herald of spring when it moved into Madison Square Garden each April. In the past few years that legendary arena has undergone a major interior renovation, depriving the big show of a mid-town venue, but it has moved comfortably into the city’s newest arena the Barkley Center in Brooklyn, which brings us to the busiest and most varied center of unconventional circus in all five boroughs. Brooklyn Bound Without a doubt Brooklyn is crucial to the New York circus scene, especially in terms of providing homes and performance venues for a wildly eclectic group of circus companies. It was here that the Bindlestiffs and Circus Amuck sprang into existence twenty years ago and which they continue to use as home base. It is still home to the “Do-It- Yourself” funky world of circus, according to Nelson. Among the companies that have shown some staying power is LAVA, Sarah East Johnson’s women’s acrobatic group that has managed to gain funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council. The New York Clown Theatre Festival, a month-long series of shows and performances, which are held in Brooklyn each fall, with participants coming from all over the world. It kicks off its stay with an evening parade and a pie fight that ends at The Brick, which along with the Loft are the borough’s main venues for circus style performances. The Folk Circus in Bizarre Bushwick, a bar on Jefferson St takes local band’s albums and adds a story played out by circus acts, acrobats, aerialists, blockheads, contortionists, fire breathers and sword swallows. These shows manage to draw audiences of about 150 a night. Most of the city’s training facilities are located in the Williamsburg and Bushwick sections of Brooklyn. Among them there is The Muse, an acrobatic gym, located Williamsburg. Most of the performers who show their work in these venues have long found it impossibly expensive to train and live in Manhattan any more. Keith Nelson is lucky enough to live in a rent stabilized space, which is secure until he passes on. “The saddest thing about circus in New York now,” Nelson has observed, “is that if someone wants to take circus to the next level they have to leave New York to do that because of rent costs.” His fellow Bindlestiff artist Stephanie Monseu has moved upstate. Among those many experimental studios there is the one belonging to choreographer Elizabeth Streb, a MacArthur Fellow (Genius award) who was once referred to as the Evel Knievel of dance. Her brand of cross fertilization involves getting dancers airborne usually via a variety of strange mechanical devices. And then, of course, there is Coney Island, geographically a part of Brooklyn, but set apart by its honky tonk roots that manage to keep a tenuous hold on this exotic part of the city. In addition to the durable side show run by Dick Zigun, there is also the Coney Island Sideshow School, where one can learn the esoteria of side show artistry. Coney Island is also the venue for the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus’ Cavalcade of Youth. Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island Moving out to Queens we find the Circus Warehouse which Suzi Winson opened in 2010 in Long Island City.

Load more